They sent a damaged mill, and in their paperwork mention many times about replacing damaged parts because they EXPECT IT TO ARRIVE DAMAGED!!!
(Wouldnt that lead you to changing either shipping companies, method or packaging??)

So I sent them photos of damage to get replacement parts, this is what the owner himself Jack Schmindling answered:

[i]"Yes, we expect damage. That is the nature of UPS shipping.

What you describe is typical of the damage.

All of your criticism can be corrected by charging more for the mill
except your comments about handling and assembly. If you think we would
intentionally ship a banged up mill, I think it best that you simply
return it for a refund.

With 20,000 happy customers we do not need an unhappy one.

Hang on to everything and we will arrange for UPS to pick it up.

js"[/i]

So, instead of following their OWN POLICY that was in the shipment paperwork of replacing the damaged parts they want to just take it back. So they can mail the damaged one to someone else? Was hoping to attach photos. If I can get them up I will follow up with URL to them

(PS, how do you turn ON BBCODE?? Options says off, but nowhere to turn it on!)

I just ordered The Barley Crusher. I've only heard good things about them so far........and you can bet if it shows up damaged, it's going right back.
I don't know what you paid for that mill, but the Barley Crusher cost me $134.00 with shipping. http://www.barleycrusher.com/

After sending reply mail, not so nice about how he was treating me the paying customer, and how he should understand how I feel waiting and when it arrives its broke, and that he should take more care and change shippers (or handlers as the damage clearly happened in house not at UPS) he replied and Im not kidding with the following:

Does that sound like a professional? He cannot handle criticism of his piece of junk product. Someone else told me the BC too, or Crankandstein, I will go with that
I am going to try to get charge reversed because he did not respond that he will send replacement parts or arrange for UPS to pick up. So I will reverse the charges then I bet UPS will be at my door to get it..

I kinda got the same impression when I ordered from them.I was leery of ordering thru paypal rather than directly from a company and then never recieved an order confirmation from Schmidling.Only paypal.So I e-mailed JSP after about 2 1/2 weeks asking when I was likely to recieve my mill.Never got any replies after 2 e-mails but did get the mill after 3wks.The side plates on this thing are pressed cardboard-I'll probably end up replacing them w/ alum. plate.I agree, they need to wake up.This is a buyers market and they aren't the only game in town.It wouldn't have cost them anything to say "Sorry about the shipping damage we will get you a new mill in the mail"Instead they lost a customer and word spreads fast.

Yes, same here I had to write to ask when it would arrive, and he did reply the same day saying it had shipped, but after a week it did not arrive, and I called and left a message as a woman says "Please leave a message and we will pick up the phone if we are available", so what do they do screen their calls?

But she did call me back when I called for a tracking number, as that is not provided either.

Well, I am going to reverse the charges since they sent me damaged goods and he did not acknowledge willingness to send replacement parts or a UPS label to ship it back.

How can it be cheaper to send it at high risk of getting damaged and then sending replacement parts, then just sending it in a styrofoam mould shape, like say computers are shipped in? it would never be broke. BUt you make that suggestion to him and like I said, he told me to take my meds!!!

Don't fret when the rubber gasket that moves the non-powered roller will break after a short time (and fall into a batch of crushed grain). It serves no purpose other than to demonstrate that both wheels turn, so I never replaced mine and there is no impact on my efficiency. 90% on Saturday!

You know, I did measure it once... maybe it was about 0.35, but I can't really remember. It's about 1-2 "hours" smaller than the factory setting, if you know what I mean. I determined my gap empirically, though, not by setting a particular gap.

As the Barley Crusher came from the factory, I got a respectable 72-75%. That was up from the 50% I was getting from my local brew shop crush. My buddy was getting ~80%, and I got 92% on two batches that I double crushed, so I decided to tighten the gap and see what I could get.

I closed it a bit (not measuring how much) and got 80%. Closed it a bit more and got ~85%. That made me content, but I recently tightened it just a little more out of curiosity to see if I could hit 90% consistently. This last tightening has given me 85-90%, but I've had to stir in the middle of runoff a couple times, so I'll back off soon.

I've never had a fully stuck sparge. I've always been able to get it running again after a stir and vorlauf. It's still a hassle, though. I'd think you have some room to tighten, though. Just do it in small increments and watch for signs of slowness toward the end of your runnings.

Man, I can't wait to give this thing a go. Too bad I already had my next 2 batches for this weekend milled at my HBS.

Now you make me wonder if I should close the gap right from the start instead of using the factory setting. I have a bad habit of tinkering with stuff before I know exactly what's going on. That's gonna drive me crazy now. I wish I wouldn't have read your post, slothrob.

My buddy gets 80%+ with the factory settings, so I'd try it there first. You may be very happy with the results. The factory settings were also problem free for me. I've just been working to optimize my system, because it's very similar to a lot of what I do for a living so it's a bit of a compulsion. 90% efficiency also allows me to make up to 1.070 beers in my 5 gallon tun.

It's only happened to me a few times, but I've always been able to resolve a stuck sparge by re-stirring, re-vorlaufing, and re-starting the running. I've kept the runnings a little slower after the stick, in an attempt to prevent it recurring. Luckily, I don't have to vorlauf more than a couple pints in my system to re-clear, so it goes pretty quick.

I had luck once by just blowing into the out tube of the tun until I got a couple bubbles. It must have loosened the plug, because I was able to vorlauf a pint or so and restart without any other problems.

As far as the LHBS ground grains. You can pass them through your new mill for a second crush. It's a little risky as far as the chance of a stick, but the two times I've done a double crush I got 92% efficiency. So, if you don't mind the risk of a slightly longer brew day, give it a try. I'd just try one batch at a time until you know if it causes problems.

Legman wrote:Man, I can't wait to give this thing a go. Too bad I already had my next 2 batches for this weekend milled at my HBS.

Now you make me wonder if I should close the gap right from the start instead of using the factory setting. I have a bad habit of tinkering with stuff before I know exactly what's going on. That's gonna drive me crazy now. I wish I wouldn't have read your post, slothrob.

If you do get a stuck sparge, what ways can you get it unstuck?

Stir, throw in some rice husks or as a last resort blow back up the exit tube.

Yeah I thought of running the grain through for a second crush, but I was afraid I may over shoot my OG since I've used more grains to compensate for my low mash efficiency. This next batch for the weekend, I may take a portion of the grain and run it through to see if that does bump it up a bit.

For the most part (with the grains milled @ my HBS), I've been getting anywhere from about 54-68 percent mash efficiency. That pretty much sucks. I did try adjusting the PH for the first time yesterday, thinking that my be part of the problem......but that didn't really do much on that batch. So I'm still leaning toward the grain crush.

After this next batch, I'll just run the grains through my new mill and compare the two. I may have something else going on in conjunction with the crush.
If your mash efficiency is hitting 92%, what is your brew house efficiency at??? What's the average norm for this?